80 FEDERAL INDIA
All treaties made by the East India Com-
pany, so far as they are in force at the com-
mencement of this Act, are binding on His
Majesty, and all contracts made and liabili-
ties incurred by the East India Company
may, so far as they are outstanding at the
commencement of this Act, be enforced by
and against the Secretary of State in Council.
Since the obligation to maintain the treaties
and engagements with Indian States inviolable
and inviolate is absolute and cannot be either
denounced or ignored, it is clear that any new
Parliamentary Statute providing for the govern-
ment of British India is bound to contain the
clause that the treaties with the states shall
continue to be binding on the Crown and its
agents in India. This acceptance by the
Crown of the continuously binding character
of the treaties and engagements with the states
constitutes the guarantee of the sovereign
rights of the states.
The federal guarantee would therefore be
in the nature of a double insurance. Any
Government for the whole of India can only
corne into being as a result of fresh treaties
individually negotiated with the states by a
self-governing India. For obviously no Act